Toshiba has begun shipping samples of a twin-platter 2.5in hard drive that boasts a storage capacity of 30GB - the highest yet in this form factor, according to the company.

Although higher-capacity hard drives are available, they are generally based on 3.5in platters and are larger in overall size than the Toshiba products which are 9.5mm high, 100mm long and 70mm wide.

The drives feature a data transfer rate of 100Mbit/s and weigh under 100g. Toshiba says the drives could bring increased functionality to PDAs (personal digital assistants), digital music players and video cameras. They are expected to be available commercially from March.

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